You've heard of Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving when it seems everyone in the U.S. crowds into the malls to get an early start on the annual holiday shopping frenzy. But have you heard of Cyber Monday, the first workday after the long weekend -- in other words, today -- when we all sit down at our desks and start surfing our way to those perfect gifts?

According to a poll we recently commissioned from Harris Interactive, 40 percent of employed U.S. adults say they plan to do at least some of their online holiday shopping from work this year. So we aim to make all that pointing and clicking as fast, safe, and easy as possible. Shopping with Google Checkout means using one user name, password and account to make purchases from thousands of merchants. It means serious protection from online fraud. And this holiday season it also means a nice bonus for your gift-buying budget; as a small holiday gift to all Checkout shoppers, you'll receive $10 off purchases of $30 or more, or $20 off purchases of $50 or more, depending on the merchant.

And just in time for the holidays, we're also happy to announce a growing number of merchants who recently added Checkout to their sites, including Toys R Us, Babies R Us, Golfsmith, Linens 'n Things, PetCo, and J&R Music and Computer World.